Generating a Poem from Nature’s Patterns

This prompt will help you reconnect with nature and explore ways to write a poem as an extension of the natural world.

“I wish to speak a word for Nature,” Thoreau declares in his famous book Walden. More than a century later, humanity has grown so disconnected from nature that his invocation is now critical. How can we now speak a word for nature? In this writing exercise, I would like to invite you to observe your environment and its inner workings in order to generate a poem following a natural structure, movement, or pattern. This prompt will help you reconnect with nature and explore ways to write a poem as an extension of the natural world.

The first step, whether you live in an urban or more rural setting, is to go out! Notice any signs of life: a lone oak tree in a town square, an aspen forest, a woodpecker loudly pecking on trunks and tin chimney tops to call a mate, a beach scattered with junk . . . Note the patterns: the tortuous branches of the tree, the flickering light of the aspen leaves, the rhythm of the woodpecker’s call, the waves rocking.

Now, use these patterns to structure the sound of your poem. For example, the light that makes the aspen leaves flicker between bright and dark could lead you to alternate between lines containing a brightness of sound and lines that emphasize darker, guttural sounds. The poem could be about an aspen tree, or about a moment, an object, or a scene that reminds you of an aspen tree. Maybe the poem is a description of an electric pole set where an aspen tree used to be. Another illustration is to write a poem about those woodpeckers you heard that integrates their pecking as the enumerations of words or explosive consonants and punctuation within the poem.

You can also use natural patterns to guide the line progression of your poem. For instance, you could write a poem relating the story of the oak tree in the square that emphasizes turns and line breaks like the tree branches constantly twisting. Or, perhaps you write about a soiled beach using the wave patterns of the rising tide, each line becoming longer until finally taking over the width of the page.

Once you have written this poem, go back to the tree or to the beach. Listen again to the woodpeckers. How has writing this poem changed your connection to the natural world around you? I hope you are left feeling more attuned to your environment and with the desire to “speak a word for Nature.”

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If you enjoyed this prompt, check out Beatrice’s upcoming poetry workshop, Ecopoetics in a Time of Environmental Crisis, which begins in January 2023.